Officially founded under the banner of the Order of Reason in the 14th Century. Also known as Daedalians, its original members at the time of ratification were as follows:
The Artificers: Pursuers of technological advancement.
The Cabal of Pure Thought (also called the Gabrielites): Advocates of a unified Christian church.
The Celestial Masters: Scholars of the heavens.
The Cosian Circle (also called the Hippocratic Circle): Pursuers of the advancement of medical science.
The Craftmasons: Pursuers of moral, spiritual, and physical perfection.
The High Guild: Pursuers of a new trade-based system of commerce.
The Solificati: Pursuers of higher truth through alchemy.
The Void Seekers: Explorers of unknown places.
The Solificati were almost immediately purged for their over-reliance on alchemy, while the religious beliefs of the Gabrielites and Craftmasons led to their eventual elimination from the Order. In the meantime, a shadow faction called the Ksirafai developed, and worked behind the scenes to aid in these eliminations while shaping the Order of Reason into what would eventually become the Technocratic Union. The Artificers became Iteration X, the Cosians became the Progenitors, the High Guild became the Syndicate, and the Celestial Masters and Void Seekers unified to become the Void Engineers. The Ksirafai shaped policy until they arranged for their own disappearance, leaving the New World Order to take their place as masters of covert operations, espionage, and counter-intelligence.
With the advent of the industrial revolution and the information age, the Technocracy sought to adapt by allowing the formation of the Electrodyne Engineers (experts with electricity and ether) and the Difference Engineers (experts with electronics and information technology). Both, however, eventually rebelled against the Technocracy, becoming the Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts.
The Union came close to winning the Ascension War by using tools such as the advancement of scientific methods and principles (along with the technology this produces), the spread of corporate market-forces, and the application of political power. Their achievements were epic and their control nearly absolute. Everything was going as planned until the Fall.
The Fall
The Fall began in the year 2000, specifically with the Russian Prime Minster being eaten on International Television. The existence of supernaturals was revealed to the masses, causing World Wide panic.
You built a tower; now watch it Fall.
The unspeakable happened. The unthinkable occurred.
The Fall changed everything for everyone, but it nearly shattered the Union.
In retrospect it should have been obvious. If you put enough pressure something and it's bound to give. The Fall was many things but to the Union it was primarily reality letting off a massive cloud of defeat. Stasis giving way to Entropy and Entropy giving way to Dynamism. Through this release, a weird sort of balance was struck. However, things are rapidly (and naturally) returning to Stasis and like its forbearer the Industrial Revolution, the Fall has had some unexpected consequences.
The collapse of the global information network, followed by the collapse of the global economy coupled with a small but none the less effective nuclear exchange, not to mention open displays of supernatural presence lead to a near complete undermining of centuries of planning and labor. Out of the four factions the Union had the most to loose in the Fall and the resulting Reconciliation War. The Union experienced the first complete and total breakdown in its history. The Union was no longer a Union but a group of isolated cells huddling together for safety. It was this weakness that lead to the departure of the Void Engineers. This event was known as the Fracture.
In the world after the Fall this is no longer the case. Science had claimed for centuries that there weren't any monsters, but broadcast television begged to differ. Sleepers saw the man behind the curtain. There were two reactions: fear and anger.
Regardless, many Sleepers gave up on Science. They gave up on the idea of a predictable reality. They believe only what they can feel with their hands and see with their own eyes. When they don't like what they see, they reach for the closest available weapon, the weapon given to them by the Union: Technology. And then they used it. They used it on vampires, they used it on shifters, they used it on mages. And when they looked under the rug and found the Union. They used it against them. Humanity needed someone to blame for the Fall. Who better than the monsters?
The Reconciliation War
The twenty or some odd years after the Fall are known among the Mages as the Reconciliation. Nephandi, Union, Council Mage battled bitterly against each other, both internally and externally. Finger pointing and ultimatum sending abound. Centuries old grudges were resolved in in flames and bloodshed.
Lack of funding, lack of support, constant benching of projects that didn't have direct impact on the bottom line all lead to the Fracture. During the Chaos of the Reconciliation War the Void Engineers split for the Deep Umbra, never to be heard from again. To avenge themselves against the Union's stifling, they left the Horizon undefended. The other Conventions cursed the day they cut the funding to the VE space program as this left a huge hole in their security. As the Fall began to break down the boundaries between friend and foe, the Union itself began to schism. Old rivalries turned deadly as power struggles erupted left and right. The collapse of the global information network, followed by the collapse of the global economy all but crippled the Union. Operatives and Agents now had to live or die by their own power. There were no orders from above. There was no marshaling of tropes. You couldn't spin the Fall. The damage was too great. There was no one to tell them what to do.
Union Losses
Authocthonia
The machine realm of Autocthonia suffered an attack by Barabbi mages that delivered a crippling blow to the system. Autocthonia has recently been restored to functioning but continues to suffer data leakage and crashes as the worm has neither successfully contained or eradicated.
MECHA
Was taken over by a Marauder and that is where MECHA's fate stops making sense. Eyewitness Union forces report MECHA has having been sucked into a non-euclidean space on May 17th 2012; however, the E.S. Ariel reported getting a distress call from MECHA on two difference occasions. The first on October 15 1997. It came from the bottom of the Mariana's Trench in the Atlantic Ocean. The second was on January 5th 2021 and it came from Saturn's orbit. To make matters more disturbing, ancient accounts of MECHA appearing in other areas of Tellurian began mysteriously appearing in history texts. No one is aware of MECHA or it's inhabitants fate let alone it's position in the space time continuum. The state of MECHA and it's dangerous inhabitants is of concern for both Union and Council forces.
Demise of the Pogrom
In the 19th and 20th century, the Union acted as 'reality police.' Either other supernaturals complied with their agenda or they were punished. In the 21st century, the Union no longer has the kind of power to enforce the pogrom on a large scale, nor to they need to with security corporations like Metsec and ComSec.
The Union only practices the Pogrom when there is a direct threat that could cause wide spread damage, trigger another Fall, or that directly threatens Union interests. It would be foolish to think that just because the Union can't mount the world wide Pogrom of the past that it has forgotten the art of war- when the Union chooses to become involved it does so with infamous… efficiency.
With the Convocation of Twin Falls, the Union is more interested in keeping the Marauders and Nephandi behind the Gauntlet and the Horizon than it is in stamping out Council mages.
The Current Union
In the post-Fall world, the Union has a lot of rebuilding to do. Sleeper trust of technology is intact but the prevailing distrust of science and authority has to be combated. The collapse of the infrastructure lead to a near complete loss of government control. The Unions primary objective as of now is to enmesh itself seamlessly into the Corporatocracy and provide the answers to all the unanswered questions. The easy days of denial are done. Its time to accept that the supernatural exists, decide what the New Truth is and explain it to the point that it can be controlled again.
Should be simple right? Union mages must tread carefully among the halls of the Corporations. Genetic testing, Metsec, and an overall paranoia and distrust have bred a certain vigilance in Sleepers. No longer will they accept easy answers to things they do not understand. Monsters exist. Period and woe be to the mage who is branded such.
Structure
The Union is currently structured like the corporations it is trying to hard to infiltrate. At the highest level, there is the CEO. This is the one man or woman who has the single controlling interest in the technocratic Union. He or she sets the agenda and formulates plans for the reclamation of the Consensus. The CEO is surrounded by a cadre of subordinate executives and Regional Directors, each of which has specific functional responsibilities. These make up the Inner Circle. Being selected as one of of the Inner Circle grants great prestige. The Inner Circle report directly to the CEO.
The current Union CEO is Er Rui Su. Mr.Su is a well connected Syndicate mage of Chinese origin.
Balancing the CEO's power is the board of directors. This board is made up of the heads of each of the Conventions. The board advises the CEO and assists him or her in implementing his agenda. This may sound all well and good but is really just a thin veil for the cut-throat politics the Union has always practiced.
The Regional Directors supervise the implementation of the Union's agenda in their given area. They report directly to the CEO.
Construct Supervisors handle the day to day running of the Construct as well as the implementation of the Union agenda on a local level. They report directly to the Regional Director.
Amalgam Heads report directly to the Construct Leader and members of the amalgam report directly to the Construct leader.
Current Union Roster
CEO
Mr. Er Rui Su - CEO - Syndicate
Board of Directors
Helen Carson - Syndicate
Operative 42.259 - Iteration X
Dr. Calderwear Mannes - Progenitors
Calvin 'Atari' Zim - System Operators
Mr. Allen East - New World Order
Regional Directors - North America
Albright Varr - NWO - LATMA
Sherry Smythe-Parson - Syndicate - NW Alliance
Brian Weir - Iteration X - the SKIMA (the popular skiing areas of Colorado), the the Rust Belt (Chicago/Milwaukee/Detroit), Texas (Houston/Dallas/Austin)
Herrald Endicot - Syndicate - NewBos (New York/New England/Boston)
Marshall Grey - NWO - UEC (Upper East Coast — Baltimore to Raleigh/Durham, NC)
Abernathy Jones - Syndicate - LEC (Lower East Coast — Atlanta to Jacksonville, FL)
Minor LaLur - Syndicate - SunVille (Miami to Key West)
Arick Sen - SysOps - NWA (NorthWest Alliance: San Francisco/Portland/Seattle)
Goals
While many Technocrats (being members of the Technocracy rather than pawns controlled by it) use magic, few accept that their actions are anything other than the successful application of a little-known scientific principle.
In addition to using Enlightened Science, the Technocracy made use of hypertech, or technology that was not yet accepted by the Masses and is therefore subject to Paradox.
Not all Technocrats are mages (roughly one in ten can use true Enlightened Science in the form of reality-altering magic, and perhaps as many as half can use simple supernatural abilities such as psychic powers), and what defines a Technocrat is more a matter of the absolute belief in science, commerce, and politics as the foundations of a Utopian worldview. As a scientific meritocracy, however, the Technocracy's highest ranks are occupied entirely by mages.
Precepts of Damien
The Precepts of Damian
ARTICLE 1 - Bring order and stability to the universe. Predictability leads to safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Ascension shall be won.
There as been very little change in this article. Though the Union exists in a dynamic state unheard of since the Age of Reason, order and stability are still main stays of the Union practice and philosophy.
ARTICLE 2 - Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce, politics, and of the power of rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
The Union is working this article for all it's worth. Science has quite a tarnished reputation as things it once said didn't and couldn't exist proved otherwise. The Sleepers haven't forgotten this but neither has the Union. Regardless the Sleepers want answers and the Union is only too happy to provide them. The Union's current agenda includes muddying the issue to the point of making the masses so misinformed that they don't know what to believe. Once the masses are properly confused, the Union will be there to guide them and set them straight.
ARTICLE 3 - Preserve the Gauntlet. Preserve the Horizon. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten the stability of our world, and allow outside forces, such as the Nephandi, access to it. This must be prevented at all costs.
The golden age of the pogrom is over. The Union is no longer able to muster the resources it once was. It is by no means weak but it's focus is largely on firming up its hold on the Bright Corporate world. The holistic integrity of the Gauntlet and Horizon are not a priority at this time. The SysOps do provide limited patrols of the Gauntlet and the Horizon and maintain close tabs on the bizarre happenings with in the Matrix. The other articles come first and once they fall into place so will Article 3.
ARTICLE 4 - Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge and reason must be absolute, lest chaos envelopes all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
The Union is back to the drawing board on this one. While the plain facts about the Universe held up to the Fall many truths the Union espoused did not. Further more, Council and Nephandi forces have seized the chance to insert their view of Universe into reality. The Union is working over time on this one as it's crucial to its long term plans.
ARTICLE 5 - Eliminate random elements and reality deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Ascension.
As stated above, the golden age of the pogrom is over. The Union lost the reigns of the pogrom during the Fall. They are one of many who have a hand in security corporations like Metsec and Comsec but they are by no means the masters of these threatening groups. The Sleepers themselves have launched their own pogrom, one that the Union is only too happy to very carefully and quietly support. This Article and how it is being applied remains a controversial among Union mages as it has back fired a number of times and lead Metsec right to their front door.
ARTICLE 6 - Shepherd the Masses - protect them from themselves and others.
Of all the Articles none inspire such heated contention as this one. Iteration X and the Syndicate maintain a mechanistic (some say cynical) view of humanity. The Progenitors are arriving in a golden age where the genetics can make men into supermen and their efforts are heralded as revolutionary. The New World Order remains shadowy as ever while the SysOps continue bristle about security.
The Union in LATMA
LATMA has a checkered reputation in the marbled halls of the Technocratic Union. Until recently, the Union officially regarded LATMA as a war-zone with no potential, choosing instead to focus on rebuilding its power bases in Silicon Valley and New York City.
Those Union mages who chose to work with in the wasteland that is LATMA went there for the unprecedented freedom or were re-assigned there due to politics or as a form of punishment. No one likes to mention the purges that went on in the 2030's (see below).
Thanks to the cowing efforts of Metsec and the Consortium LATMA has finally begun to settle down. While still, by far, the most dangerous area in North America, it is by no means the war-zone of yesterdays. The Union has begun to take an interest in LATMA again.
LATMA-CON
Not too long ago, LATMAS-CON was a rank 2 Construct (low security). Something happened, however, and the Construct was nearly lost. Practically all personnel, both Enlightened and Associate, disappeared. Due to this fact, the Inner Circle gave LATMAS-CON the highest security rating (5) and put its maintenance into the hands of the New World Order and Iteration X (the more militant Conventions)
What exactly transpired with LATMAS-CON in 2022 is still unknown, but whispers of Nephandi influence have been heard. Most who attempt to discover how the investigation is going find the information to be classified and, consequently, unavailable.
LATMAS-CON is considered to be one of the worst, if not -the- worst, assignments in the Union. Those that come here are either mavericks, idealists, upstarts, or enjoy the danger of living on the edge. As a result, the Union tends to hesitate when requests are made for equipment that they'd rather not lose. LATMAS-CON must often make do with semi-outdated gear. This only makes the Operatives that survive LATMA that much more effective, however, as they come to depend more on their own wiles than the usual run of paraphenalia. In fact, there are those who say that LATMAS-CON was deliberately engineered to be the way it is that it serves as a proving ground. It is a stone on which to sharpen skills and instincts to a razor's edge. In LATMA, its either sink or swim, do… or die.
The following files are amendments and articles on policy that are specific to LATMAS-CON. All Construct personnel are expected to be aware of these policies, and to adhere to them.
ARTICLE 22-2: Security
All LATMAS-CON personnel are expected to check into the Construct at least once every 168 hours, as per standard rank 5 security protocol. Personnel who do not check in will first be relegated to suspect status, stripped of all security clearance, and removed from all DEI communication channels. Personnel listed as suspect who fail to check in after another 168 hour period has elapsed will be marked with rogue status and slated for reconditioning or decruitment.
Checking in consists of making contact with your Department Administrator. If you cannot appear personally, contact through the DEI should be made.
ARTICLE 22-2: Law Enforcement
Metropolitan Security (MetSec), and other law enforcement organizations that are contracted to protect the Masses, should be supported in their duties whenever the opportunity presents itself to do so. Establishing positive relations with these organizations should always be considered a primary Construct objective.
ARTICLE 22-3: Status
LATMAS-CON is currently operating with soft mission parameters, keeping within the boundaries of surveillance and intelligence gathering. No member of Personnel is to actively initiate hostile encounters with Random Elements unless authorized to do so by a member of the Construct's administration. Vulger procedures are strictly forbidden in Bright sectors, and must be authorized before being executed in Dark sectors.